Steve Cappiello was a rebel with a cause...he lived and breathed Hoboken on every occasion...If you think Hoboken is a beautiful city today, you should have seen it in the late 1960's and early 70's...Washington Street, between Observer Highway. and Hudson Street, looked like a war zone...People used to laugh at Hoboken back then but they don't laugh at it anymore...In the eyes of Steve Cappiello, it was a great city back then as it is today.

I first met him as a cub reporter for the Hudson Dispatch assigned to the Hoboken beat in 1969. Steve Cappiello, a city councilman on the verge of upsetting then Mayor Louie Depascale, and the regular democratic organization, knew how to rock-the-boat; he knew how to get the attention of the some 40,000 plus residents of a decaying city; the magic-mile as he used to call it...I remember reporting on the street riots in 1970 when a group of local residents took to the streets to make their point about poor housing and living conditions; Cappiello made it his business to meet with the angry leaders not only to quell matters but to help right many wrongs...Playing a large role in getting law and order restored was a young Jim Farina, leader of the Hoboken Young Dems, and the late Police Chief George Crimmins...It wasn't just housing that Cappiello was concerned with, it was everything that had anything to do with the betterment of the city he loved: Hoboken.